David Llada, appointed new Editor-in-Chief of American Chess Magazine

We are very excited to announce the appointment of David Llada as our new editor-in-chief, the first move in our strategic plan to strengthen our team and keep growing.

Probably most of our readers are familiar with Llada’s work as a photographer, which last year earned him the “Best photojournalist” and “Best single photo” awards by the Chess Journalists of America association. His pictorial book The Thinkers, published by Quality Chess, also received worldwide recognition – and not only in chess circles, but also in the photography world.

However, David has never considered himself a photographer but rather “a storyteller, or a journalist on a leave”. He has a solid background in journalism, a career that he started at a very young age. Not only was he a regular reporter for many chess magazines, but also the chess specialist for El Mundo -one of the largest Spanish language newspapers- and author of three chess books. He has published material on other subjects as well, such as science, sports betting, technology and obituaries, and he was the main producer of a cultural and political debate TV show.

He stopped writting regularly about chess around 2005 and with that, we believe, the promotion of our game lost an important asset. Now, we are honored to have lured him back to chess.

This addition to our team means a double-gain: with David taking care of the content, our founder Josip Asik will have his hands free to work on managing and promoting American Chess Magazine. We are aware of all the things we have to improve and still have a long way to travel until we are where we want to be. But we are also satisfied with the progress made over the past two years: we have in our hands a beautiful magazine we are proud of and which is already economically sustainable. The future of American chess looks bright and we want to be there to witness it, document it, and bring it to you.